Shanghai China Snippets Observations about living in Shanghai and China in general

All Starbucks outlets here in Shanghai were overcrowded between 10:00 and 12:00 this morning. Free coffee makes people stand in line. A smart marketing ploy by Starbucks that offered also free coffee yesterday in the rest of the world.

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So why the “sucks decaf” title you may wonder.

Every now and then, hyper from too much caffeine in my blood, I order a decaf. Every time I order this I get first a blank stare after which I’m told, “We don’t have”.

Giving free coffee away is great, listing coffee for sale that is never available sucks.

Wish all readers a great and fat year of the pig.
Watch the short Fireworks video, showing you what it was like a bit after 12 ‘o clock on Chinese New Year in Shanghai

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Everyday I look out my window and I see this, an old Shanghai quarter.

Last night we went to the movie Nostalgia by Haolun Shu. A documentary about a Shanghai Quarter (Shikumen) destined to be replaced by skyscrapers. The movie had been shown before but I didn’t make it that time. I’m glad I did now. The film was aired/shown in the Museum of Modern Art.

Haolun Shu documents the neighborhood he grew up in, a neighborhood accessible by the Stone Gates (Shikumen) and build in the 30-ties. The “old” way of living in Shanghai that slowly starts to fade.

The movie made me laugh as his grandmother, a witty sweet lady and one of the main characters asks him not to film when she is doing the bookkeeping for her Mahjong club. It’s too embarrassing, she says. It also made made me sad when he asks her what she will do once the constructors come knocking down the buildings and she’ll have to leave. She stares at him, as looking at her past memories and is silent.

Most of all, the movie shows what life is like in traditional Shanghai before buildings had to compete with each other about height and the amount of concrete used and where neighbors know the names of the people living next to them.
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The audience, and there were so many that they had to open an extra room and show the movie there as well, consisted mostly of young Chinese (students) and some foreigners. There was laughter when old propaganda shots of children’s choirs that were singing about how happy they were to study passed by, there was silence when the maker of the movie was wondering what all this modernization was good for.

A great movie to see for anyone living in Shanghai but also for people abroad to get a glimpse of life in Shanghai as it used to be and still is in several areas in the centre.

Everyday I look out of my window. In a couple of months I’ll see something different.

You can find here the website of Hao Lun Shu. (it’s mainly in Chinese but has English as well) On the website you can contact the film maker. The dvd costs 20 Kuai and I think you can order it by sending him an email. At least that’s what I hope as I still like to get one myself.

It’s amazing how fast and efficient our street is re-paved and gets the zebra crossings as a finishing touch.

Our old fitness centre, Total Fitness on Nanjing Xi Lu, was not bad at the beginning. Sure, they had problems with the volume of the music and I had to get used to men drying their scrotum with a hair dryer, but getting past that, it was ok. That’s Shanghai fitness, I gathered.

A year ago, things started to deteriorate. The DVD players stopped functioning, TV’s became foggy and remote controls went awol.

I know, all these are irrelevant if your part of the Spartan approach to sports but running on a treadmill is hard enough as it is. You’re going nowhere by default, hence some distraction is needed.

We now changed to a new fitness place. Brand new, including swimming pool. You can smell the paint. Having been a member somewhere else will get you a for sure discount as they like to take out the competition.

We bartered a good deal, at least that’s what we think. We got 14 months for the price of 12 plus a discount on the list price.

Let’s hope everything still works in month 15 or we have to move on again.

Looking out of the window of the bus I noticed there are many satellite dishes attached to the balconies of the big buildings.

In Holland satellite dishes mostly imply that it’s an apartment occupied by immigrants who like to watch tv in their native language.

In Shanghai, I have the feeling, it means seeing more than just the Chinese channels.

Positive solutions did a post on the things he missed when the Internet in China went back to the dark ages. A nice angle and I will blatantly copy his idea and spin it into telling you what I wish I had missed in this period.

1. Staring at my browser for ages hoping that the other half of the page will make it through

2. Being punished daily by having to read the China Daily and the Shanghai Daily as my sole information source. This gave me also the insight what it must be like to be condemned to only Chinese language mainland websites.

3. Clicking a banner on the People’s Daily about the 100-days campaign against piracy and finding out it ended in October 2006. I wondered what happened on day 101

4. Reading the relationship section of the Shanghai Expat forum out of utter boredom and for the entertainment value of course.

5. Re-organizing my files on the computer until even the last byte was put in the right place

6. Watching the 3d season of Desperate Housewives, probably released in China on aformentioned day 101. Well, actually that was kind of fun.

7. Watching CCTV 9 and being bombared with an item on burning European made shoes that didn’t pass the quality control. I chekced on the available China Daily website they burned a whoopie 200 pairs. Something to do with the 16.5 per cent anti-dumping tariff on Chinese manufactured leather shoes the European Union has imposed maybe…

8. Having to explain to people abroad that China may be an emerging power but that doesn’t mean the concept of back up cables has made inroads here yet

There you have it, the lucky 8 things I wish I had missed and now go on and read the 10 things Positive Solutions missed.